As America cuts its losses, what are Israel’s options? - with Amit Segal

**Dan Senor** (0:00)
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**Amit Segal** (0:53)
I'll say it impolitely. To shut up, that is the best option I would offer the Israelis these days.
Stop talking about Iran. Stop attacking President Trump or Vice President Vance. The best service Israel can give to itself and to the US and to the chances of relaunching the effort to prevent Iran from having an nuclear program is to let these negotiations to fail, because any other attempt, be it in Lebanon or in Iran directly, will be seen necessarily as yet another intervention of Israel in the American business.

**Dan Senor** (1:42)
It's 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24th in Israel. It's 7 a.m. on Wednesday, June 24th here in New York City, where Mayor Mamdani continues to steamroll through Democratic politics. It's less of a Democratic party here in New York City these days, and more like the Democratic Socialist Party, the DSA, with a clean sweep by Mamdani of his endorsed candidates for Congress, including Mamdani toppling two incumbent Congressional Democrats. Last week, the United States and Iran signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding at the Palace of Versailles.
A framework of that MOU, at least the version that has been in the public, leaves Iran's ballistic missile program largely untouched, it preserves its proxy network, it lifts oil sanctions, and promises billions of dollars to Tehran. The Strait of Hormuz gave Washington pause. Intensive talks to turn that MOU into a permanent accord are now under way in Switzerland, with Vice President Vance leading the American delegation. Israel is not in the room, not even adjacent to the room. The Lebanon front, where Israel has continued striking Hezbollah and where Hezbollah has continued striking back, has become the single biggest threat to the talks in Switzerland. Iran has made a halt to Israeli operations in Lebanon, a precondition for any final deal.
President Trump has publicly rebuked Prime Minister Netanyahu for the strikes in Lebanon, and a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon came into effect. Israel is reportedly preparing to retreat its forces from southern Lebanon. Back in Israel, according to public polls, and conversations we're all having, the Israeli public is demoralized and angry. A number of Israeli security officials are not mincing words, calling this moment we are in right now a strategic defeat. A Channel 13 poll shows President Trump's favorability in Israel collapsing, all in a matter of weeks. And Netanyahu, who staked a large part of his political legacy on this war, now appears to be stuck.
Too hawkish for Washington, too soft for his own base. And, for the rest of the electorate, many regard him as irredeemable. Ark Media contributor and senior political analyst for Channel 12 in Israel, Amit Segal, has been tracking every turn of this story in real time. I encourage our listeners to subscribe to his newsletter, because the reporting out of there, especially in recent weeks, has been excellent. A year ago, Amit accurately predicted that the US would strike Iran's nuclear facilities. The question now is whether he's right about what comes next. As America seems to be cutting its losses, what, if anything, can Israel still do about it?

**Deborah Pardes** (4:36)
I'm Deborah Pardes, the host of Ark News Daily. What's happening in Israel and the Jewish world right now matters. But it could be hard to keep up, let alone make sense of it all. That's why we started Ark News Daily.
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